The Story of Everything: A Synopsis of The Urantia Book

Paper 16: The Seven Master Spirits

The Seven Master Spirits
of Paradise are the primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. While
the Infinite Spirit is personally present within the Paradise-Havona
system, his presence is revealed to the rest of the grand universe through
the Seven Master Spirits. Individual differences between the Seven Master
Spirits appear because each of them represent one of the seven possible

Master Spirit number one presides over
the first superuniverse, and is a manifestation of the power, love,
and wisdom of the Universal Father. Number two portrays the character
of the Eternal Son as he directs the destinies of the second superuniverse.
Master Spirit number three, in charge of the third superuniverse, resembles
the Infinite Spirit. Master Spirit number four displays the combined
natures of the Father and the Son as he fosters the fourth superuniverse. The
fifth superuniverse is directed by Master Spirit number five, who blends
the characters of the Father and the Spirit. Master Spirit number six
portrays the combination of the Son and the Spirit in the sixth superuniverse.

The functions of the Seventh Master Spirit
include portraying the personal natures of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
representing the personal attitude of God the Supreme, disclosing the
deity attitude of the Paradise Trinity, and sponsoring the progress
of ascension candidates from the worlds of time and space. The Seventh
Master Spirit's domain is the seventh superuniverse.

As a group, the Master Spirits function
on every universe level of reality except the absolute level. They
are efficient supervisors of all phases of administrative affairs in
the superuniverses. They create the Universe Power Directors,
who organize and regulate the physical energies of the grand universe.
The Master Spirits assist Creator Sons as they shape and organize the
local universes. They are the sevenfold source of cosmic mind, which
provides the intellectual potential of the grand universe and of the
individuals who inhabit evolutionary worlds. It is postulated that Orvonton's
Master Spirit is involved with Life Carriers, adjutant mind-spirits,
reflectivity mechanisms, and the bestowals of the Holy Spirit and the
Spirit of Truth.

Each segment of the grand universe
enjoys the benefits of the united wisdom of all seven Master Spirits,
but receives the personal attention of just one. Every human and
angel created in the superuniverses bears the characteristic stamp of
one of these seven Paradise Spirits.

All will creatures are endowed
with an innate response to three domains of universe realities: Causation,
duty, and worship. Causation, the domain of physical reality, is the
factual, mathematical, or scientific form of cosmic discrimination.
Duty is the domain of morality, the arena in which right and wrong are
judged. Worship is the spiritual domain of divine fellowship, spirit
values, and the assurance of eternal survival. These innate cosmic intuitions
make it possible for humans to function rationally as self-conscious
personalities in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. It
is the purpose of education to develop these innate endowments, of civilization
to express them, of life experience to realize them, of religion to
ennoble them, and of personality to unify them.

Man's moral and religious nature
distinguishes him from the rest of the animal world. Virtue is righteousness-conformity
with the cosmos. Virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good
over evil, and such choosing is evidence of moral nature. Morality cannot
be advanced by law or force; it is a personal choice that spreads through
contact with moral persons. Mortals can ascend to the level of moral
beings because they are endowed with personality.

Creature personality is distinguished
by two phenomena: self-consciousness and relative free will.€ Self-consciousness
is the awareness of personal actuality. It includes the ability to recognize
the reality of other personalities and indicates a capacity for individual
experience with cosmic reality. Free will is involved in moral decisions,
spiritual choices, brotherly service, group loyalty, cosmic insight,
devotion to God's will, and worship.

Once a personality begins the
realization of Deity kinship, such a self, indwelt by a fragment of
God, is in truth a spiritual child of God. A human being can never become
as absolutely certain of a fellow human being's reality as he can be
sure of the reality of the presence of God living within him.
The recognition of God is inalienable and constitutive in all mortals.
Self-consciousness is essentially a communal consciousness of God and
man, Parent and child, Creator and creature. We become conscious
of the brotherhood of man because we first become conscious of God as
our Father. We worship God because he is, then, because he is
in us, and last, because we are in him.